Disecting cats in Biology class.

[Twisterdog]

I can understand dissecting cats in college courses, but don't really understand why so many high schools do it. I do wonder where they get them from though.

That is a very good point, I meant to mention that in my earlier post. Dissecting ANYTHING in high school is generally a complete waste. Who needs that information ... a doctor, vet or biologist. How many high school kids grow up to be those things? And if they do, they will get plenty of it in college and post-graduate work.

And an interesting point was made about the source of the cats ... if they were euthanized at an animal control facility earlier anyway, then that is a far different thing then raising and killing cats specifically for dissection or experimentation.

[IRescue452]

I wouldn't do the cats in high school. I cried after seeing them because they reminded me of my own cat. I believe most cats are killed for the purpose of dissection, but slowly slowly slowly places that do dissections are starting to get animals from shelters and vets (yes your own pets could end up on the dissection table after euthanasia at the vet if you don't ask where they are going). I read somewhere that some places catch cats off the streets in Mexico and use them, but who knows. Imagine if you recognized the cat on the table and you were in high school. I volunteered at the animal shelter and my biggest fear was seeing one of the cats from the shelter in science class all cut up.

I did the frog though and I use the info as I've done necropsies on my own rodents when they die of unknown causes. But in all reality, most of what I learned about what the insides of a healthy mouse should look like and how to navigate their organs by looking at pictures, not by a classroom dissection.

I would never ever do vivisection (dissecting a live animal), unless you were actually doing a surgery. There's no point in keeping the animal alive while you cut it up just so you can kill it when you're done.

[CathyBogart]

My school did get the cats from the local Humane Society after they had been PTS. I saw them do the drop-off once. At least those cats went on to educate someone when they couldn't find loving homes.

[IRescue452]

Getting them locally is not a good move in my opinion. They should go to a different county humane society. Can you imagine if some high school student had to give up their cat because their parents for some reason made them (someone in the house is allergic or so on) and then the cat showed up in a bag of formeldahyde on their science desk?

[sammy101]

IMO, if the cats were PTS humanely or died of natural causes I see nothing wrong with it. I don't think that's right for high school though. I think college/university is more fit for something like this.

I dissected a rat in 10th grade. I was ok with it then but I don't know about now.

[lizbud]

My high school required Biology classes. I loved the science of it, but
the lab excerise was awful. I quickly found a good lab partner who did
all the cutting while I took notes. We only had to do worms & frogs.

[king2005]

When I did Bio our teacher told us where the animals came from. He is an animal lover & only gets them from a trusted source. The pigs came from adult pigs that went to slaughtor & ended up being pregnant. So the baby pigs were sold to the company. The frogs came from research labs, same with the rats. The cats came from the same company who got them from different animal shelters. They were cats that were destroyed & instead of going to the landfill to rot.

No the shelters were not getting $ for this. The cats were all donated in order to prevent any issues.. BUT the schools bought the cats from the company.

There was info on the company if we wanted to read more up on it to insure the school wasn't buying animals to be killed for class, etc...

I quite injoyed the class & so did everyone else.